One last visit to the pumpkin patch before Halloween. It had to be last the visit to this pumpkin patch since the farmer sold out of pumpkins! Pretty wild since he had a great crop this year (pumpkins do not usually grow well in Ireland), but as pumpkin patches are few and far between here they get a bit mobbed around the holiday. We stocked up early though and now have a selection of pumpkins around the house to carve; I always like the most round ones but Thomas tends to be drawn to quirky ones--the larger and more oddly shaped the better in his opinion! I'm also looking forward to making roasted pumpkin seeds and pumpkin pie with the remains. I actually really like savory pumpkin dishes too, but I'm the only one in my household who eats anything with pumpkin! So it will be a lot of baking, cooking, and freezing the extra for later meals for me!

You can't go wrong with a bit of plaid in the fall! I like it in the cozy flannel variety, classic blanket scarf version, never say no to a Pendleton skirt...the list goes on! Today's plaid is in the pinafore variety, rather mimicking a school uniform! It's funny how when you aren't forced to wear a uniform you gravitate towards the look. I only briefly had a uniform for my one year of private school growing up and I hated the uniform then, but now I find myself quite often wearing elements from the look--and I kept my actual uniform beret and still wear it now a decade later! For me I think it goes back to my love of nerdy looks; outfits that wouldn't look out of place in a library or at least with a novel tucked under your arm...

I feel as if I've been looking forward to autumn since last winter. We had a gorgeous, lingering fall last year with trees that seemed to hold their color for months, followed by an unusually snowy winter and painfully late spring. Summer was lovely and golden, but this year instead of savoring every moment of sunshine and warmth I kept looking forward to autumn. As soon as September rolled around I was ready for every changed leaf, red vine, and apple in the orchard! I still wouldn't say autumn in my favorite season (I think I enjoy having every season), but there is something about autumn that sinks into your bones a bit more than the others. Or at least in a more pleasant way than some of the others, for winter also has a way of sinking into your bones but in a more leaden sense. This year we've lost a few trees and a lot of leaves to windstorms, but autumn is still a stunner. The year's last, loveliest smile lighting up the woodlands around us...

I don't usually wear a lot of black, but when Halloween is around the corner it's kind of hard to resist--especially if your black look features a skeleton top! One of my favorite things to wear around the house in October is a skeleton onesie (that I found in the children's department!) that has made it into my Instagram stories but will probably never make it on to the blog since I never wear it outside the house. This skeleton sweatshirt is nearly as cozy as the onesie and has the added bonus of being appropriate for wearing it! I decided to play up the spooky elements in this look with a black hat and creepy-ish embroidered collar. I mean, on me is anything really that spooky or creepy? Bonus: I love how the back of this sweatshirt is just a detailed as the front.